The encryption war of WWII: the Enigma encryption machine

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Please check out my blog:[1] for updates on my research and what to expect for things to come on the GHN article.

Brief Overview

I’m a student in the History of Computing class at San Jose State University ([2]). This is a work in progress that will turn into a final article by the end of the semester in December of 2011. I welcome your comments and advice.

I am developing a java simulation of one of the encryption machines used in World War II by the Nazi military--The Enigma. During my research and development, I have been learning a lot about the disciplined effort that was made toward creating this encryption system that was (presumably) unbreakable; but this task at hand calls for the mentioning of even greater events happening simultaneously. The efforts of the computer scientists at Bletchley Park unarguably changed the course of WWII, and using one of the first modern day concepts of the computer in history -- the Colossus.

Upon completion of my Enigma simulator, I want to apply what I have learned about the machine's construction and use in war time and apply it to the perspective of the allied forces. I intend to define how Bletchley Park scientists determined their decryption algorithms and more importantly draw a relationship to the magnitude of their efforts in both revolutionary thinking in the field of computers as well as respective technological growth.

By December I intend to have a working simulation of the Enigma encryption machine along with algorithms derived from computer scientists at the time that can be applied to the simulator for decryption. Like with any history article, I intend to provide a solid historical grounding in the events which incited these technologies.